The thing is, the image comes from a study of only 432 adolescents, in a very distinct geographic area (Los Angles).

And… by the way… the study was conducted 35 years ago.

Oh, and the results can, to a large extent, be explained by the fact that the UCLA researchers conducting the study in 1978 had people respond on a 5-point scale, and counted everyone who didn’t respond with a 1 as a “yes.”

In other words, these 432 adolescents were asked something along the lines of, “If a woman gets a man sexually excited, is non-consensual intercourse justified? Please answer on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 meaning the act would absolutely not be justified, and 5 meaning that it absolutely would be justified.” And, if a person responded with a 2, as people are generally inclined not to responds with absolutes (1s and 5s) in such cases, it was counted as a “yes.”

The folks at Salon and Boing Boing should be ashamed of themselves for sharing this without the proper context. My hope is that it was just an oversight on their part, and not purposefully done to drive web traffic.

Is it that so man men believe that “rape” is justified in certain circumstances? Or that so many women do? Or that both do?

I don’t think these results are surprising at all and I’m willing to bet that the results wouldn’t be all that different today among adolescents.

Some women, falling victim to misogynistic (sp?) propaganda which pervades our society and others, are as willing to blame the victim as some men are. That’s not something we should accept, but it is something that needs to be recognized.

I don’t know, you guys can call me an asshole if you like, but I believe that there are a lot of religiously conservative people out there who believe that if a woman has been raped, she has done something to bring it on and even among those who aren’t religiously conservative, I think there are a lot of people who believe the same thing.

I don’t think it should be a surprise that there are people out there who aren’t very smart.

76% of those surveyed were 16 or under
432 adolescents in Los Angeles
50% female, 50% male
1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 Hispanic
Broad range of education (most were still in school) and parent occupation
37% 14-15, 39% 16, 33% 17-18.
49% from father absent homes
33% did not expect to complete or attend college
61% reported to have had sexual intercourse
Recruited subjects through a youth employment branch office of the California state employment office.
Took one hour and compensated $5.
Written consent was taken from both the adolescent and their parent.
Interviewed by clinical psychology or social work graduate students
Interviewers were in their 20s
Interviewers were matched to adolescents by their sex and ethnicity

With all due respect, Peter, that wasn’t the question. No one was arguing that “no” women feel this way. You said that the numbers shared by Salon didn’t surprise you, and they show that 42% of women believe that rape is justified in cases where women sexually arouse men.